Monthly Archives: October 2018

If you’ve ever wondered what makes a Pinnacle Team Events facilitator tick then you have come to the right place! Each month we will be taking 5 minutes to chat with each of our facilitators about their lives both inside and outside of work.

What do you love about hosting Murder Mystery events?The laughter. Hearing a group or team laughing together over the course of a night is “the best medicine”. I love helping groups “let their hair down” after a long day’s, week’s or even year’s hard work.

Favourite moment as a corporate Murder Mystery facilitator:At one of the first corporate functions I hosted, a female executive told me to my face that she hated these sort of nights. At the end of the night, she led the conga line and told me what a great night she’d had. It’s always nice to win people over.

Do you have a favourite Murder Mystery theme?I’m pretty fond of our 1930s Chicago Ganster theme.

Most embarrassing moment as a facilitator:I always make a “dramatic exit” at the end of a night. One night I thought I was running out of the room but ran into a glass door and gashed my head. One of the waitresses was studying to be a nurse and patched me up.

My favourite hobbies are:Running and song writing.

Band I’m listening to at the moment/podcast recommendation:Queen/Fizzics Ed podcast

What was the last book you read?:Running Like a Girl

Favourite holiday?:My honeymoon in Bali

Have you ever had a nickname?:Shermie (Inspector Sherman Jones)

I am frightened by:Angry people.

Favourite movie of all time:Back to the Future

First concert I went to:Status Quo

If you could live anywhere, where would it be?:Ireland. My ancestor’s are from there

Events by ATC at the heart of Sydney Racing, Royal Randwick, and the recently refurbished Rosehill Gardens offer Sydney’s most versatile venues for Indoor and Outdoor team building activities.

Winners at the last four consecutive Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS Awards for Excellence NSW, our world-class team and multi-purpose venues are at the forefront of the Sydney events and functions industry.

With award winning catering, complimentary high density Wi-Fi throughout and free onsite parking, our exclusive venues are a winning combination for your next event.

Conference Capacity – Theatre style up to 2000pax

Testimonials:

The Royal Randwick facility is fantastic. We have held events at all the major convention centres in the country and I can honestly say the facilities and the staff are exceptional. The level of professionalism and customer service at Randwick is light years ahead of other venues. We look forward to returning there for our next event.

Mornington Latent Images

The whole team at the Australian Turf Club provided excellent service from start to finish. The venue is really well suited to host both grand and intimate events and the production crew, catering and support staff really looked after us for our flagship summit. I’d like to thank everyone at ATC for an outstanding job.
Huawei Australia
Huawei ICT Roadshow

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and it is fast approaching! Have you been given the mammoth task of organising your end of year work celebrations? Are you stuck for ideas and yet to lock anything in? Now is the time to start planning and securing your preferred Christmas party date as we are already starting to book out on some dates in December! To get you into the Christmas Spirit and to help with your planning, we have put together a list of our top 10 team building ideas for your work Christmas party.

Bring on that end of year feeling with a good old-fashioned scavenger hunt! Just like an end of year muck up day without the chance of being arrested, our Amazing Race is the perfect way to see out the work year.

The gift of giving! Christmas is a time for giving and also a time to remember others who may not be as fortunate as ourselves. So why not make a difference and get your team together to build & donate some bikes to underprivileged kids.

Wanting to really spoil your team for the end of year function? Spend the day checking out all the sites on Sydney Harbour whilst solving clues & competing in challenges in our Water Taxi Treasure Hunt.

THE EXPERIMENT

In the 1990’s professor William M Muir conducted an experiment to determine how he could increase the egg-laying productivity of hens. To do this, he began with one flock of average hens. Muir then selectively bred the best egg-producing hens for six generations to create a flock of ‘superchickens’. In addition, Muir also kept another group of average chickens whom simply bred normally. At the end of the six generations, Muir found that the group of average chickens were healthy and egg production had increased. Sadly on the other hand, the productivity of the superchickens had decreased and all but three chickens had pecked each other to death.

Does this sound familiar or have you worked in an environment like this?

WHAT DOES THIS TELL US ABOUT TEAMS?

If you follow us on Facebook, you may have seen we recently shared a link to a TED Radio Hour, The Meaning of Work. In this episode, serial entrepreneur and “management thinker” Margaret Heffernan discusses how this superchicken method of building teams, where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others, has been extensively used by companies over the last 50 years. And by only selecting the superstars and giving them all the resources and power, the result has been much the same as William Muir’s experiment: aggression, dysfunction and waste. She argues that “if the only way the most productive can be successful is by suppressing the productivity of the rest, then we badly need to find a better way to work and a richer way to live.” Margaret Heffernan.

SO, WHAT MAKES A TEAM MORE PRODUCTIVE OR SUCCESSFUL THAN ANOTHER?

According to Heffernan, collaboration is key! Working together & alongside other brilliant people towards a mutual goal is the way forward in the modern workforce. Heffernan sites a MIT study that found the groups that worked best together exhibited the following three things:

Social sensitivity (empathy) towards each other

Everyone had and gave equal time and contribution

There were more women in the successful groups than in the groups that failed

Heffernan goes on to explain that the best way to manage and motivate people is through social capital: the reliance and interdependency that builds trust. Trust takes time, but trust also compounds over time. Teams that work together for longer get better because it takes time to develop the trust you need for real candour and openness. She sites a company that implemented something as simple as synchronising coffee breaks so that people would have more time to talk to each other. The results were that profits went up 15 million dollars and employee satisfaction went up 10 percent.

Social capital turns good ideas into great ones because teams push and challenge each other through honest discussion and collaboration.